Slovenian energy transition is not consistent with the principal goals of green transformation. It is possible to stipulate that claim and say that Slovenian energy transition is not consistent even with basic principles of the European Green Deal. It does not include citizens in an even and encouraging way, which is the first requirement of the new developmental paradigm. It does not work on effectively motivating the public to actively transition to sustainability.
With an unchanged (liberal consumerist) political culture, Slovenian energy policy remains unchanged on three key levels. At the level of basic understanding of democracy, at the level of understanding the role and importance of the public in the context of the transition to sustainability, and at the level of decision-making itself. In order to verify this claim, we turned to the analysis of fundamental energy documents.
We studied the practices and ways of adopting energy policies. And talked to people representing the country, the most powerful energy companies, non-governmental organizations and science.
The present research thus proves in a consistent, systematic way that Slovenian energy policy understands the current energy transition in the same way as it understood the past. Therefore, it does not ask fundamental development questions, such as: »Why is it not possible to address the problems of sustainability with institutional tools that were developed before we began to realize the extent and severity of climate change?« »Why is civil society saying that participation remains just a dull, unfulfilled set of letters on paper and that the existing public consideration of legislative proposals addressing energy policy is difficult to take as serious involvement of the public?« And finally: »Why does the legalistic policy-making framework separate and create conflict between the actors who are key to a sustainable transition, instead of connecting them and promoting understanding?« It could be said that Slovenia is not only delaying its path towards sustainability at the level of energy transformation, but is actually making it more and more difficult to reach.
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